Interspecies scaling of toxicity reference values in human health versus ecological risk assessments: A critical review

Abstract

AbstractRisk assessments that focus on anthropogenic chemicals in environmental media—whether considering human health or ecological effects—often rely on toxicity data from experimentally studied species to estimate safe exposures for species that lack similar data. Current default extrapolation approaches used in both human health risk assessments and ecological risk assessments (ERAs) account for differences in body weight between the test organisms and the species of interest, but the two default approaches differ in important ways. Human health risk assessments currently employ a default based on body weight raised to the three‐quarters power. Ecological risk assessments for wildlife (i.e., mammals and birds) are typically based directly on body weight, as measured in the test organism and receptor species. This review describes differences in the experimental data underlying these default practices and discusses the many factors that affect interspecies variability in chemical exposures. The interplay of these different factors can lead to substantial departures from default expectations. Alternative methodologies for conducting more accurate interspecies extrapolations in ERAs for wildlife are discussed, including tissue‐based toxicity reference values, physiologically based toxicokinetic and/or toxicodynamic modeling, chemical read‐across, and a system of categorical defaults based on route of exposure and toxic mode of action. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2023;00:1–16. © 2023 SETAC